Catalysts
by Eternally Seventeen
Summary: You fall in love with Lily at her worst moment, and decide to stay that way. / When James rescues Lily from a nasty duel with Rodolphus post Quidditch and the two truly fall for each other. -oneshot-


This is for and inspired by EssaTheTwerp (Essa), with her pairing James/Lily (THANK YOU FOR SHIPPING THEM, ESSY!) and prompt 'punch'.

I really hope you like this one, Essa!

**Warning:** Slight usage of the occasional swear word.

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**Catalysts**

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It's extraordinary, really, how one moment has the capacity to change _everything._

You fall in love with Lily at her worst moment – when she hexes a Slytherin boy for constantly calling her a mudblood, when the agony of self-doubt coupled with the discrimination she was facing _every _**single**_ day_ finally snapped her self-control.

You hear the words leave her mouth and recognise her voice but _cannot,_ for the life of you, believe in the verity of the sight you has just witnessed.

Her hair flies about her in angry copper streams as she hollers at him for an apology and you wonder, just for a minute, how it would feel to run your hands through her lush tresses. The thoughts scatter as you hear her scream at the boy once more and your heart goes out to her. Only you can hear the sheer anguish that she conceals in her screams.

You choose to abandon your hiding spot and disregard the rather pungent odour that is emanating from your Quidditch robes and decide to do _something _to help her, though you have no idea what it is that you're about to do. You are more than sure that your attempts at pacifying her will only earn you utter disdain and immediate banishment from the staircase landing, which is where the two were now duelling. So you decide to act on the spot and listen to her, but you promise yourself to keep her safe first.

The minute you get there, however, all your plans dissipate at the sight of her bloody forearm and the boy's ugly welts. You recognise the slim but muscular boy as Rodolphus Lestrange and slight fear grips your heart for you know how ruthless he could be and wouldn't blink twice even to kill.

"Lily!" You scream as you run towards the enraged duo and do the first thing that comes to your mind – grab her wand and knock her to the ground. You can hear Lestrange sneering behind your back but you don't care just then, wishing wholeheartedly for him to get expelled or even killed by the idiot Dark Lord he worshipped so fervently.

"Are you alright? Why did you choose to _duel _Lestrange, that too in school? The match is over and everyone will be streaming in within minutes. What happened to you?"

She kicks in the air while you retain your vicelike grip on Lily and you rub her back with much difficulty while looking at Lestrange. Every muscle in your body begs for a sweet go at revenge and you smile internally at the delicious sight of his unconscious body at your feet, but you understand that this isn't the time to fight. "Get lost," you spit at Lestrange, and he glowers at you.

"Leave your girlfriend alone, Potter. She was handling this fine. Feisty little mudblood she is, is she not?" He leers at Lily, closing the gap between you two in a few swift steps and raises a hand to touch her.

Your senses go into overdrive as you gently deposit a now passive Lily to the floor and throw a hard punch at his face, enjoying the sickening crunch that is a result of your hard fist connecting with his nose. He kicks you in the shins and your steps falter.

"James!" Lily cries out to you, and for a minute her voice is a balm to your flaming spirit.

"She. Is. Not. My. Girlfriend!" you holler before pouring every ounce of your anger into a mighty punch in his guts and he crumbles, swearing nastily enough for Filch to expel him had he been around.

"Do you fancy being my rescuer, Potter? Was this all so that you can narrate tales of glory to your bunch of minions at dinner?" Her tone is acidic and betrays the immense pain she was sure to be feeling as she gingerly picked herself off the floor, leaving little bloodstains beneath her.

"What?" You are too taken aback by the hostility in her tone to be able to answer her properly.

You pause for a minute as Lestrange gets up angrily, mumbling rubbish about cursing you in your sleep and your smirk with satisfaction as he slowly limps towards the Slytherin dorms. You have no doubt that he'll dream sweet dreams of bloody murder tonight.

"What were you thinking, Potter?" she screams at you, and it all comes crashing back to you.

"Are you crazy, Lily? You were duelling. With Rodolphus bloody Lestrange, in the landing by the Hufflepuff common rooms. _Duelling_. What has gotten into you? You'd have probably earned yourself a very inconvenient trip to the hospital wing had I not found you here!" Your stomach churns at the image of her lying bloodied and weak in the hospital wing, denied the privilege of visitors and your anger quells.

"Listen," she continues, still hysteric. "I didn't need your help, okay? That…that horrible boy…couldn't stop calling me a filthy mudblood…he said that's what Sev thought of me, too, and…" Her words collapse onto each other and she falls onto the banisters as the hysteria gives way to a flood of desperate tears.

So you do the first thing that comes to your mind, which is to envelope the shaking girl in your arms and hold her tight, murmuring sweet nothing into her ears. You are more than prepared for her to shove you away and so it comes as a pleasant surprise when she holds on to the front of your robes and sobs her heart out into your chest.

You let her be. The only though that constantly flits around your mind, is _she's beautiful. She is just so damn beautiful._

"You stink, Potter," she mumbles from within your robes and you laugh with mad relief, laugh at her return to normalcy and pull her away from you with slight reluctance, smiling at her tear-stained face. She gives you a watery smile and then whips her wand out as you look with slight alarm, wondering if this was just a ploy to hex you.

_Scourgify! _She points at you and you laugh as the mud stains on your robes vanish and you begin to smell of_ – nothing_. You actually miss the heady stench of adrenaline and mud and sweat and Quidditch that you'd been caked with but say nothing as she folds back into your arms again, holding you tight.

"Thank you, James," you hear her whisper, and you marvel at the way in which your name flows out from those rosy lips of hers. It's the first time you remember her calling you by your first name.

"You remembered to clean _me_ up but decided that it would be okay to leave splotches of your blood on the floor?" You gently admonish, not knowing how to respond to her gentle display of gratitude. She giggles as you look for your wand and rid the floor of her bloodstains, feeling slightly sick at the thought of finding her lying on the floor, unconscious and bathed in her own blood.

You blink vehemently to rid your mind of the ugly images it was conjuring and turn to Lily. "I saw you at the stands at the beginning of the match," you tell her. You are temporarily distracted as you watch her face brighten at your memory. "So you did see me," she smirks and the corners of her lips tug upwards.

"Yeah, you were busy hollering away with Alice," you remark dryly. "Where did you go after that, though?" You are unable to prevent extreme concern from working its way into your voice.

Her face grows wary and you mentally curse yourself for bringing it up, but then you realise that you can't go without knowing.

"I…I felt a bunch of footsteps thundering towards the stands," she explains, and your stomach swoops as you are able to imagine what followed. You wait patiently for her to continue talking, though, and proceeded to admire the little flecks of sunshine that her grass green eyes ended in.

"A bunch of boys from Slytherin were behind us at the stands. They started picking a fight with Frank, who was just behind us."

You open your mouth to say something, but she cuts you off.

"Naturally, Alice wouldn't keep quiet. Those idiots couldn't take a joke and _hexed _Allie. Right there on the stands! I wonder how professor Hagvia didn't see or hear anything. Well…" she shudders a little at the memory, and you almost feel guilty for having asked her. But you remember the sight of Lestrange, a seventh year brutally bullying Lily, a fourth year and you yet again hate to think of what would have happened to her had you not been there at that very time. You knew that she was strong, but the Slytherin was so much stronger.

"Basically, Lestrange threatened to torture her parents as they were radical protesters against Voldemort's whole parade of sick, twisted people and she couldn't take it. She made a pass at his wand, and he lost it. I got in the middle and grabbed his wand from Allie so I could give it back to him, but he mistook my moves and slapped me."

You breathe in sharply as she shows you a dull, red patch on her pale cheek and your hands itch to literally put an end to the bastard's life.

"Naturally, I didn't let it be," she said wryly, and you laugh. "Naturally."

"So, wait; you followed him to the castle?" You ask in surprise, and she nods her head.

"Yes. I literally took after him while all his idiot friends disappeared into thin air - I don't know what came over me," she admits ruefully. "I've been called a mud blood plenty of times by these numbskulls, but today…"

"I know, I know," you soothe, moving your palm over her hair and nearly melting as the silky smooth strands twist and dip between your fingers. Your knees grow weak while your hands grow bolder and you put both my hands on her cheeks, cupping her face and tilting it up so looks straight into your eyes.

"Lily," you whisper, and you are surprised to see the black in her eyes swallow the golden and the green as she stared into your eyes. Her breath hitches in her throat and your heartbeat is hammering away at an unholy speed, but you never once loosen your grip on her.

"James," she begins, and the raw emotion in her voice breaks you down completely.

"Thank you," she whispers, her face now a mere second away from yours and you feel the hair on your hands stand on end.

She closes the distance between you two in soft kiss that sends your mind flying_soaring_**gliding **over the treetops and the skies and the clouds, higher and higher to a zenith you hadn't yet explored before.

You devour her soft lips hungrily, bringing your hands down to her slender waist and bringing her closer to you while she wraps her arms around your flushed neck, molding herself into you.

It is in that instant that you know for sure that the animosity between you two is now a part of your history, and that you can't live another waking minute without knowing that you're hers, and she's yours.

And with that, you're gone.

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**A/N**: Also for:

Scrabble Challenge, prompt: brighten.

Ultimate Het Love Competition, level Slytherin, pairing James/Lily and prompts: extraordinary, one moment can change _everything_.

OTP Boot Camp Challenge, prompt #2: agitated

The Ultimate Shipping Challenge Extravaganza, with James/Lily.


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